The Beginning of All Things
by arquen78
Summary: Anne finds herself tangled in the web of the phantom. Will they find love, or will they end up heading towards a dangerous path?Read and find out!Rated R for language and future adult scenes.


It was dusk in the city of Paris…the sun only just starting to disappear. Patches of pink and purple covered the azure sky, clouds absent from the view. It was a wonderful sigh to behold. But only to those who could see it…

"Anne-Marie! Please do not fall behind, it is getting dark and I would hate to go back to the manor without you and have to explain to your father why you aren't with me." Her maid called from a couple of yards in front of her.

"Alright…don't get your knickers in a twist. I'm just fine, I'm not a child and I refuse to be treated like one." she replied, frowning.

"I'm sorry miss, but with your condition and all…"

"Yes, yes, I don't need you to elaborate anymore on this." but instead of walking on, she stopped.

"Anne? Why have you stopped? I haven't upset you have I? I'm terribly sorry if I have." Anne-Marie's maid questioned.

"No, you haven't. I was just wondering, for a night only, just one, if I may go to Christine's alone? I've been there many times before, and I remember the way. I won't get lost. I promise. And anyways, everyone here knows me! Nothing will happen." Anne knew she was taking a chance, and it was dangerous. But she wanted to be alone. She wouldn't go to Sarah's. She would instead go in search of the burned down Opera Populaire of which Christine spoke of weeks ago. Her curiosity was not easily satisfied, so of course, when she heard rumors of the infamous Phantom of the Opera, Anne had longed to see if it the rumors were in fact true.

"You know very well you can not! It's still too dangerous for you to go out alone. If there was danger, how are you to see it? How would you know? If you were to get lost…I shudder to think what would happen if…" her maid looked aghast.

"Please Sarah. Just this once! I need the freedom, I want to explore and see." Anna made it look like she was on the verge of tears. Though she couldn't see, she knew Sarah was contemplating the idea.

"But if you get lost or get in trouble, it's not my fault and I won't take the blame." Sarah finally decided but was still worried slightly.

"Thank you! Oh thank you so much, this is wonderful. I love you Sarah dear." Anna laughed with joy. Now was her chance.

"Please be careful, I would hate to see anything happen to you, miss. Watch out." and with those words, Sarah left, still thinking whether she made the right decision or not.

'Great…now I'm on my own' Anne thought. She gripped her cane tightly and made towards her destination. Yes, a cane. No, she isn't 70. Not even close, Anne was 23. But her 'condition' forced her to walk with a cane. You see, ever since Anne was born, she had a condition that made her left leg limp. The doctor said it had something to do with the bone growth, but Anne hadn't been listening. All she knew was that she wasn't able to walk without a cane. It saddened her at times when she was younger to know that she couldn't run and play like the other kids. But they never taunted her. Her father had made it known one day when he saw children poking fun at her that he would not tolerate any such behavior towards his daughter.

Walking as quickly as she could, she made her way into an alley she knew existed. Letting the silence surround her and feeling her wall of resistance fall down, just for a second. But many unfortunate events could happen in just a millisecond…

Anne could tell something was wrong. The peaceful silence was cut by heavy footsteps and a voice muttering to itself.

"Why? Why! That insolent bitch…dares to leave… after all I've done, all I've given…nearly the whole god damned world…lost it all…" it was an angry muttering voice. She flattened herself against the alley way wall and tried to breathe quietly. But the footsteps still made its way over towards her. The voice continued to mutter to itself, and by the looks of it, the owner of that voice was clearly drunk. Her hands were sweating and her cane fell from her trembling hands. She quickly tried snatching at it before it hit the ground, but not fast enough. The clattering of her cane against the ground was deafeningly loud. The voice stopped speaking, and its owner glanced at the woman in the alley way.

"Eavesdropping are we? My, my…my. What've we got here?"

Anne tried to look menacing, but knew it wouldn't do anything to help her. She was shaking and was hoping it wasn't too obvious. She could see the man dimly now, because the sun had gone down only moments ago. The streetlights being the only lights around. Anne looked up and down the alley way trying to figure an escape plan. To her left, it was to the opera. To her right was her way back home. Looking back at the man that was slowly advancing towards her she saw he didn't really look menacing. His height was around hers, maybe an half an inch shorter. And he was large, weight-wise. His clothes were of silk and velvet, showing he had wealth and a high place in society. His blonde hair had streaks of gray in it, and his face held faint wrinkle around the mouth and forehead. What would he be doing out here?

"You look just like my late wife… very beautiful. Shame I had to kill her," Anne gasped at this. As non-threatening as he looked, he just killed someone, and still looked like he hadn't had enough blood shed for the night. "Money, is that what you're all after?" he muttered some more and eyed her up and down. Disgusted by this man, she slowly stepped towards her cane, which had fallen near her left side a couple of feet away. She assumed this man had wife who had left him after she took all his money. Then this had angered him and killed her without another thought. He saw her edge towards her cane and gave out a laugh.

"A cane? Aren't you too young? Well no matter, that can be an advantage to me." he stopped walking towards her, but then suddenly dashed towards her. Anne moved quickly, grabbed her cane and ran to her left, towards the opera house. His weight was an advantage to her, his rage seemed to have boosted his energy and he surged after her. The night was cold and the moon shone bright upon the two figures. The pain shooting up and down Anna's leg was excruciating. She gasped with pain but tried to keep running. After all, who knew what the man could do to her after he caught up. She bit her lip to keep from crying out. Her cane was of no use to her at the moment; it was clutched in both her hands, horizontally. The man was keeping good pace and she was forced to hasten her way to the opera house. As it was late into the night now, there was no one to witness this. The houses on the side of the street were dark and silent. Windows on the houses seemed to peer upon the figures and wonder what was happening.

The opera house was finally in her sight. This gave her a bit more strength to quickly stumble her way to the steps leading to the Opera Populaire. She glanced behind and saw the man was still after her.

'Will he cease to stop?' she thought 'God only knows how much longer I can run. As long as I find a spot to hide here, I will be safe for at least a while and wait for him to leave.' The man was nearly a yard behind her now. His age, and weight starting to slow him down. She whipped down her cane now and used it to aid her in getting up the steps. She stopped biting her lip and gave a light whimper of pain. It hurt, it really did. Anne felt like her leg was being torn in two.

'Never again,' she scolded herself 'will I go out at this time of night. Never again. See you foolish girl? What have you gotten yourself into? Damn you and your stupid curiosity! Couldn't wait till tomorrow could you?' Heaving her self against the door which wasn't locked as she thought it was, the doors flew open and she stumbled in. Picking herself up again, she limped her way into the stage area. If she had time, she would have stopped and admired at what beauty the opera _once_ held. But this wasn't the moment to be admiring; this was the moment to be running away from potentially deadly danger. She looked behind her once again to see the man wasn't after her anymore. He hadn't even gone into the opera house. This confused her, but she wasn't upset. In fact, it was a good thing he stopped following her. Sighing, she slowed to a limping walk and made her towards the stage. She gasped for the millionth time that day and this time, really took a good look around her. The once magnificent theatre was now in ruins.

Dust covered everything, the seats torn and in dire need of repairing. Well, actually, everything in the theatre needed repairing. Anne's eyes flew open wide when she saw the infamous chandelier. She knew of the Don Juan performance and of what the Opera Ghost did. Rumors and stories flew around even months after the incident. The Opera Ghost had apparently taken a special liking to Christine, and wanted her all for his own. During the performance, she betrayed him and he cut down the chandelier for all to remember his acts and what he had done.

Anne didn't know the whole story, just what she had picked up from gossiping women around the town. She heard the Opera Ghost wore a mask of white, a mask that hid his terrible deformed face. Some said it was void of all normal face features, some said he wore a wig to hide the fact his deformity also spread to his scalp. Many even said the Ghost's face was as pale as parchment, and was as thin as the branches on the trees. Anne knew that the chance of even finding him, or it, here was slim. He was probably dead after the fire at the opera. After all, the authorities had claimed he was long gone and very much not alive. A part of Anne believed this to be a true; a part of her told her it wasn't. An even bigger part of her told her to go home and not meddle in things that were best left forgotten, only to be remembered by those who had actually witnessed the scene. The pains still shooting up and down her left leg brought her back from her thoughts and made her assess her situation at hand.

'Well, I could either stay here the night. Or go back out and risk getting myself killed and raped again.' She rolled her eyes, as her choice was evidently the former. 'Stay the night it is, then.' She rubbed her leg and limped over to the area back stage. Maybe she could find an old bedroom and let her leg rest, wait until morning, then leave. She planned that during her wait, she could investigate and see whether the Ghost was still here or not.

Long ago, the walls were a vibrant color. Now, it was reduced to a dull, lifeless color. To her extreme luck, the first door she choose to open was a bedroom. A very nice bedroom, at that. The room was cream colored, and withered flowers in vases were located nearly everywhere in the room. The bed was an off-white color with plush pearl colored pillows. As nice as everything was, there was a musty, old house smell to it all. But Anne didn't mind as long as she had somewhere to sleep. She limped to the bed and fell down exhausted. Her cane dropped carelessly next to her. The pain in her leg dulled to a constant throbbing now, and wasn't nearly as bad as before.

'Alright,' she thought to herself, 'Exploring time…' Anne decided to start off small and looked around the room she now resided in first. She opened every drawer in the dresser and found fabulous dresses she couldn't resist trying on. She grinned to herself.

'This is going to be better than I thought.' She pulled the first dress out, and saw it was an old fashioned, over puffed red dress. Anne made a face. It was absolutely hideous. She grabbed the next one and beamed. It was wonderful. It dress was a simple white satin empire waist dress. She took off all her under things, even her corset, and pulled on the dress she had found. It was a bit, alright, a lot chilly at the moment. So Anne tied her black cloak around her tightly. Grabbing her cane and a candle which she had lighted with the matches she found in one of the drawers, she headed out into the pitch black hallway. She strained her ears to hear any sounds of movement from anything but her. None. The flame flickered shadows among the walls, and she swore she saw a shadow in the form of a human on the walls. But when she took a closer look, Anne saw it was just her. She let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding. She took another step forward, but the floor must've rotted from all that time, and she fell. Anne screamed, though she thought no one could hear her. She dropped the candle and it went out…

Managing to grab a hold of a sturdy plank of wood, Anne held on for dear life. Her cane, she knew, was near her candle. Somewhere. She couldn't tell where because she couldn't see. All she could her was the sound of her heavy gasping. She looked down below her and screamed louder than the first time. In the dim light of the moon, she saw, nearly 100 feet below her, was some sort of studio for dancers. She could tell because of the shoes left scattered around. Anne knew, if anyone walked past her right now, would faint seeing the predicament she was in. Anne was in a hole in the floor, hanging onto a floor board. And if she let go, she would fall to her death onto the hard floor nearly 100 feet below her.

"HELP! Oh please! Anyone…please…" she sobbed. Even if no one was around, it was worth trying. Anything was worth trying when you were in a situation like this. She prayed hard for someone to come. Her fingers were losing feeling and her arms were numb and tired of holding on. There was a sudden scurrying of sound, and she stopped gasping for a moment to see if it was actually anything, anyone trying to help her. But at the moment, she didn't really care as to who it was, as her fingers were slipping due to the sweat pouring from her hands. She knew she would be aching all over if she lived through this. The scurrying got louder, and turned into quick footfalls. She sighed heavily with relief.

"I'm here! Quickly please. Oh lord, oh lord, I'm going to die. I'm slipping!" Anne didn't have to register what was going on, her fingers slipped, and she felt a sudden sensation of falling.

'This is it Anne…you dumb, dumb girl!' but this was all she got through her mind before a hand shot out of the dark and grabbed hers. She held on and tried to grab the unknown persons hand with her other hand. She missed, but the other persons hand seemed to contain an enormous amount of strength, and pulled her up out of the hole. The person fell back and she collapsed on top of who ever it was. Anne was panting and sweating with relief. Then she looked up to see the face of her savior, and saw a glimmer of a white mask and striking green eyes before she fainted and lost consciousness to the world.

The figure that saved her frowned…what in the name of God was he going to do with her now? He certainly couldn't bring her down to his...home… now could he? He looked her over and saw her hair was a raven black color. Her eyelashes made shadows on her cheek in the dim moonlight, and sweat dripped down from her forehead in her pursuit to stay alive. Her lips were a deep red from being chewed on, as if it was a nervous habit. The woman he saved had a decent enough body, only her left leg was kind of odd. It had an odd bend to it if you looked closely enough. She lay limp in his arms. He sighed; well there wasn't really anything else for him to do with her. So he gingerly stood up with her still in his arms and made his way to the nearest route to his lair.

**: End of Chapter 1 :**

Wow…that took me 3 hours. And I'm still gonna keep writing. PLEASE review! The more reviews I get, the quicker I post, and the longer the chapter. And can anyone tell me what flames are? I'm kind of new to this whole fan fiction thing. Critiques, comments, ideas, etc. are welcome! I love you:MUAH:

Kelly


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